http://www.hudsonent.com/feature.php?feature_id=2
Hudson's President Speaks Out!
PART 1
A candid interview with Hudson President, John Greiner about the company’s past and future.
by J.Montes
How did you end up at Hudson?
I started off at Hudson by chance, traveling the world after graduating from college. I met the owners of Hudson and started working for them because they had some opportunities in the US. Hudson, of course, is a Japanese company and they needed a foreigner to help them acclimate to the US industry.
What would you say is Hudson’s more important contribution to the electronic gaming industry?
Hudson has had a lot of pioneering moments. They were the very first company to publish a game in Japan on the PC (personal computer). They were the first company to support Nintendo as a third-party. They were the company that developed the Turbo Grafx system, or as it’s called in Japan, the PC-Engine. That system had the very first CD-ROM gaming media. So, I think in the early years, bringing the CD-ROM to gaming was probably the biggest contribution.
What was one of the earliest projects you worked on?
One of the earliest projects was Gundam, which was a shooter. Super Star Soldier, Ys, Tengai Makyo, and almost every title that (Hudson) Japan brought to America in the early years.
If you could pick any game out of Hudson’s vast library of titles, which one would you say is your favorite?
My favorite game would have to be Bomberman. It seems to be everyone’s favorite game, who’s ever touched a Hudson product. But there’s lots of other great games hidden behind the Bomberman veil. I think games like Chew-Man Fu, Bonk (which is a great game), and also games like JJ and Jeff. In America, that game was dumbed down. But in Japan it was a very funny game! It was called “Kato and Ken" The gameplay was great but when they brought it to America they sort of ruined what made it funny; it was a great game, nonetheless. Dungeon Explorer’s a great game. Military Madness all these games are really classics of the 16-bit era.
A precursor to Triumph the Insult Dog? Here's a game where defecating would lead to "powering up" your character!
So you were employed in Japan. How did you end up back in the United States?
I had many chances to come back here and I never thought about coming back here until I had an opportunity that was golden. The cell phone market in the US really was that kind of opportunity. It’s a brand new market; we know the success of the mobile phone industry in Japan. Hudson, again, was a pioneering member of DoCoMo's team (the biggest phone network and developer in Japan) that brought gaming to the Japanese cell phone market. So when you create a third screen like the cell phone, and you can be a part of that, games are a driving factor behind the technology. Your phones right now and your phones of the future Ewhat’s going to make it better? Not the voice technology, but the gaming technology is going to push it, push it, push it!
Recently, Qualcomm came out with their newest chipset, the 6550. That’s pushed gaming to a point where people now want the newest cell phone. All this drives technology. It’s all going to be part of people’s personal electronic “wardrobeE They’re going to want to have the best phone, the most fashionable phone, and games are going to be a part of that.
What was lure, the attraction, when it came to staying and living in Japan?
I’ll answer that in two ways. First, the nice things about Japanese culture is that it’s a very organized, clean, and civilized society. There’s little crime, people have a protocol, and the way of life is very much respected because of the close proximity of people.
John Greiner They also have other things like Japanese Inns called Gyokan, hot spring baths, great outdoor activities, beautiful mountains, and rivers. It’s a very nice and easy place to live. That’s the pleasurable aspect, but there’s also the business aspect. Hudson is a great company! I’ve worked here for 18 years because of the company. It would be very hard for a westerner to stay at a Japanese company for that long, but Hudson has been a very easy company to fit into. They’ve always taken care of me.
Hudson has always had a very close relationship with Nintendo, how did this relationship start?
Hudson was the very first third-party developer and publisher for Nintendo. That took a lot of hard work. You asked me earlier what was one of Hudson’s biggest contributions, well that was a big contribution: Getting Nintendo to admit third-parties for their platform. They were very much anti-third party. They wanted to do all the software themselves. Hudson was very persistent and used their relationship with Sharp in order to get in to see Nintendo and become that very first third-party provider. Past that, Nintendo has always looked to Hudson for great games and middleware tools and to be a supporter. So, we’ve had a very close relationship with them.
Ys is still a very popular RPG. What was your involvement in the US translation?
I wrote all the translation and did some of the voice-over work for that and did some voice direction. We had a professional director, but I helped the director in getting that game’s ambience right and bringing the game up to the level that it eventually turned out to be.
Ys: Book I & II, and Ys III - Wanderers from Ys are regarded as RPG classics. The series was one of the first RPGs to ever be produced for CD-ROM technology.
There’s a rumor going around that you are the original inspiration for Bonk. True or false? I think they’re just looking for a bald head to model on! I’m not quite sure that’s true (laughs). If I had a bald head and a hairy chest maybe that’s something that would be true. But at the time, I had a full head of hair, so I don’t think that’s accurate.
Bonk went on to star in a multitude of sequels. It's not uncommon to see games like Bonk 3 fetch more than $150 on eBay!
Speaking of Bonk, we know he’s making his reappearance on the cell phone very soon. The franchise has been dormant for some time Eespecially here in the US. Does Hudson have any future plans for Bonk?
We do. Bonk, we think, is a very well known character. NEC spent about $6 million to boost that character up, and I think it’s a preeminent and ever growing title. People love the character; he’s cute, he’s fun, the game is very colorful. Everyone is excited about the release of Bonk on cell phones and we plan to spread Bonk out to other platforms; he definitely has a place in Hudson’s future lineup. You’ll be seeing more and more of Bonk!
Stay tuned as our interview with Hudson Entertainment's President continues with Part 2! He'll be discussing the company's future plans, the Turbo Grafx system, and more!
You helped launch the Turbo Grafx in the US. What was the most challenging aspect of that?
The most challenging aspect of working with a Japanese company in general is bridging communication and helping each side understand how gaming culture is different in each country. Anyone who has ever done it knows the difficulty in not so much the language, but the nuances of meaning. Often, even in our own language, words tend to muddle the situation rather than clarify. So you have to be careful to bring the right nuance to a conversation and to explain things in a way that everybody understands. More than even language, its bridging the cultures (that's the most important aspect).
While the TurboGrafx system was a fan favorite, it ultimately came in third in a three way race with Nintendos SNES and Segas Genesis. What about Sega and Nintendo that really made them stand out from the pack in the 16-bit era?
John Greiner
Very easy question, because it was obvious to us. Hudson came in and supported the Turbo Grafx. We supported everything we could because all the hardware design was ours, the media was Hudson's. We had a lot of responsibility for the machine. Because we lead the effort directly in Japan, we had great success there. In the US, we partnered with the American side of NEC, who entered the gaming space for the first time, and did not quite understand how to market a game machine; it's really the marketing that killed it. The games were there; the games were as good as or better than the (Sega) Genesis. But Sega and Nintendo really nailed the marketing, and were able to speak to the gamer. And if you don't believe that, go back and look at the box art on the Turbo Grafx. You'll laugh when you see it! Some of the old box art for Turbo Grafx games are really funny to look at today!
TurboGrafx
To this day, the TurboGrafx-16 carries a very loyal following.
Tell us your involvement with the Turbo Duo?
At the time, we were partnering with NEC and working together on the project. I think the Duo was an amazing machine, it just didn't get the traction. You look at the Duo and you think of using the CD-ROM technology and being able to capitalize on that. A lot of those games were RPGs, and thats what took advantage of the Turbo Duo. I think the US market was not really ready for the Japanese style RPGs. We came into the market a bit too early before American fascination with Japanese RPGs became so widespread. Even though Y's and games like that were great, what else would people use the Duo for? There were a couple of shooters like Lords of Thunder, which won tons of awards things like that, that really showed what CD-ROM technology could do, but the price point for that machine was too high. NEC wasn't willing to take a big price hit in order to sell units. As you can tell today, with both Sony and Microsoft willing to take a hit on each system they would sell so that you can sell at a reasonable price point, that making sure you have sales of the hardware unit is key to success.
How about third party support?
Third party is the key to any game machines success and that definitely was a factor. Electronic Arts jumped onto Sega's bandwagon very quickly and we lost out on that opportunity. Hudson understands how third party support is key, as we were the first third party publisher back on the NES in Japan. However, during the early stage of the 16-bit era, a lot of companies were doing exclusive deals, which really prevented some great games making it way to the TurboGrafx.
John GreinerHudson has always had a very close relationship with Nintendo, how did this relationship start?
Hudson was the very first third-party developer and publisher for Nintendo. That took a lot of hard work. You asked me earlier what was one of Hudson's biggest contributions, well that was a big contribution: Convincing Nintendo to open their arms to third-parties for their platform. They were very much anti-third party back then. They had some great development back then, as they do now, and they wanted to do all the software themselves. Hudson became a big advocator for having great third-party support, as that brings in fresh new ideas.
Past that, Nintendo has always looked to Hudson for great games and middleware tools and to be a supporter. So, we've had a very close relationship with them.
Where do you see Hudson going in the future?
I was on a panel two or three years ago and they asked me, "As a traditional game console maker, where do you see your revenues in 2-3 years? How much do you see coming from mobile? How much do you see coming from console?" At the time, everyone at the panel, THQ, Namco, everyone there said 10-20% of their sales would come from mobile. But Hudson has always been a leader on the mobile front. We had the very first cell phone booth at Tokyo Game Show. Everyone was like, "What's a cell phone booth doing at this show?!" But anyway, back at the panel I said within 2-3 years, over half of our sales would be from mobile.
Last year, for Hudson Entertainment, mobile sales are right up there with console sales. And we even expanded beyond games in mobile, as we have a great partnership with The Source, and we are one of the largest content publishers for all things hip hop. With consoles, buying product off a shelf is going to have a limited lifespan, just as renting movies from Blockbuster will have a limited lifespan. We're entering a new digital age and theres no reason you can't download things onto your phone, computer, or console. We want to be a technological leader and a pioneer in bringing that to the digital forefront; having people play games without having to go to the store. We embrace this vision, and youll see us do more with digital distribution soon.
Turbo Duo
The TurboDuo sported some incredible titles like Lords of Thunder and Dragon Slayer
Hudson’s been pretty quiet on the console side of things that past couple of years. How important is the US market to Hudson Japan?
I think this company (Hudson Entertainment) is a model of what Hudson Soft wants to do worldwide. The company as a whole now sees the importance of branding and marketing. We've always been making great games over the years, but we see how important it is to let everyone know that we do. We have great product but little real brand recognition outside of Japan. So we need to build on our brands and our IPs (intellectual properties), because of our intrinsic quality of being able to create great games and having that gaming DNA built into the company. We stand a great chance of being successful worldwide. I think the company sees the world market as essential; you simply cant just produce for Japan.
Our interview with Hudson Entertainment’s President concludes in two weeks! Join us as he talks about the future of mobile technology, Hudson history, and party games!
oh God, I hope a new Military Madness game is in the pipeline, for DS and/or Wii!!!
Topic: Interview: Hudson's President Speaks Out! (Read 213 times)
